Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is well acquainted with being the “first.” Throughout her extensive public service career, she garnered multiple “firsts” as she spearheaded initiatives for the betterment of minorities, women and all people.
Kimberly Shiner, the associate vice president for University Development at Cal State San Bernardino, has been appointed vice president for the executive board of Leadership California, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the representation and influence of diverse women leaders across the state of California.
Mellody Hobson, a Princeton graduate who in 2019 earned the Woodrow Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor, was named Chairwoman of the Board of Starbucks.
A report released today by USC found that people of color across all Los Angeles County neighborhoods were stopped by police at higher rates than other groups, and that Black people were stopped and arrested three times as often as whites and Latinos.
Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced $13 million in U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants to support 11 Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers (TAACs) that help manufacturers affected by imports adjust to increasing global competition. The TAACs, which each service multiple states, are located in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
Monday, April 20. Los Angeles City Officials welcomed lead researcher Neeraj Sood from University of Southern California. He provided in depth scientific research about COVID-19. Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health disclosed updated statistics surrounding the coronavirus outbreak happening across the Los Angeles Region. The results from the research conducted by USC discovered that L.A. is still in the preliminary stages of the pandemic.
In response to community pressure, last week, Los Angeles County released initial racial data on who is contracting and dying from COVID-19. The rate of Black death is twice the Black population share. Black people constitute 9% of the population, but 17% of the County’s COVID-19 deaths. While trillions of dollars are being spent on the crisis and there is no shortage of local, state, and federal initiatives, resources are not being directed to meet the particular needs of the Black community. The disproportionate and deadly impact of COVID-19 on the Black community magnifies what we have known, that “underlying conditions” result from an enduring system of racial apartheid and oppression.
Black talent being shut out of the Golden Globes is not just a travesty but also a testament to the power of the work and the narratives being told that challenge the status quo. Why folks assume that awards shows invested in the same media industries that continue to perpetuate and recycle the vilest stereotypes of black identity and behavior would somehow acknowledge the stories, performances and behind-the-scenes work that challenges dominant ways of thinking about Black people on and off-screen is befuddling.
In memory of…
A California, particularly a Los Angeles native, Hutt has spent her life and career fighting for the residents in South Los Angeles.
“… she wanted a better life for her son, so she enrolled him in the Norwalk public schools despite having no real ties to the city. ‘When the city found out that it was spending its money educating her boy, it demanded that Ms. McDowell be charged with a crime,’ Pattis said. ‘Norwalk prosecutors, known statewide for an unreasoning mean-streak, obliged. She was charged with first-degree larceny,’ said Norm Pattis, a trial lawyer who is fighting for freedom “one client at a time.”
A student who was the son of an Oakland, California, city councilwoman was shot and killed in what might have been a robbery attempt near the University of Southern California campus, officials said.
Charli Kemp has always been infatuated with music and cooking and how these activities bring people together. During the summer of 2017, Kemp’s two passions would intertwine creating her ideal non-profit Change the Tune.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District today awarded $47.4 million to 26 businesses, organizations, universities, government agencies and utility companies in the South Coast Basin and Coachella Valley to help them purchase and upgrade their equipment with cleaner and energy efficient technologies. Much of the funding will be directed at environmental justice communities that are close to industrial areas and are some of the hardest hit by air pollution. The projects are located in all four counties in SCAQMD’s jurisdiction.
In a previous column, Schools Fail Black Students, So Why Are We Silent? (Nov. 2008), I described barriers in LAUSD that contributed to a failure of the district to properly educate Black students. Substantially